The TK Things That Princess Eugenie's Wedding Dress Had in Common with Meghan Markle's
After weeks of anticipation, Princess Eugenie finally unveiled (pun intended) her wedding dress this morning on the steps of St. George's Chapel at Windsor. And while the beautiful look was distinctly her own, there were also several ways in which it evoked another recent royal wedding ensemble: the dress worn by her new cousin-in-law, Meghan Markle in May.
Considering that the similarities between the two weddings-coming in the same year, at the same chapel-comparisons were perhaps inevitable. Here are all of the ways that Princess Eugenie's wedding gown echoed Meghan's, and all of the ways it was singularly hers.
It's not by a classic royal designer.
Both Meghan and Eugenie decided to take a less conventional approach to their wedding gowns, eschewing the Royal School of Needlework that helped to craft Kate Middleton's wedding gown and instead choosing designers previously untapped by the royal family.
Eugenie's gorgeous, long sleeved gown was designed by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, of British-based label Peter Pilotto. Eugenie has been a fan of the brand for several years-she met the duo at an event that she was co-hosting in support of female artists several years ago.
Meghan's Clare Waight Keller who became the first female Artistic Director at the historic French fashion house Givenchy in 2017. Waight Keller was certainly not the front runner. Rather, the dress was rumored to be designed by Ralph & Russo, a rumor fueled in early May by the Royal School of Needlework which posted a tweet highlighting the fact that Ralph & Russo's haute couture atelier team was visiting.
Both worked closely with their designers to create a one-of-a-kind dress.
Eugenie worked closely with her design duo as they dug into the archive of beautiful wedding dresses of royals past to pick the perfect Princessly silhouette. It was created layer by layer during multiple fittings, constructed from the corset and the complex underskirt to the fitted bodice and full pleated skirt. The low V back of the dress of a feature that Princess Eugenie specifically requested to display the scar from the surgery she had when she was 12 to correct scoliosis. The condition has continued to be one of the Princess' top causes.y.
Waight Keller and Meghan also worked in tandem to craft her dress, keeping the designs and even the fact that Waight Keller was crafting the dress tightly under wraps until the day of the wedding. Her good friend Jessica Mulroney even flew to London to help the bride-to-be through the process.
Their dresses both had a hidden significance.
The fabric for Princess Eugenie's wedding dress was custom designed to include a number of symbols that have meaning for the Princess, including a thistle for Scotland and the royal family's affection for Balmoral, a shamrock for Ireland as a nod to Eugenie's mother, Sarah Ferguson's, Irish heritage, the York Rose, and ivy to represent the couple's home. Pilotto and De Vos crafted those symbols into a garland motif that was then woven into a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend in the Como region of Italy.
Meghan also gave a nod to royal life with the 5 meter long veil of her wedding gown. The veil, which took over 500 man hours to craft, featured hand embroidered flowers representing all 53 of the commonweath countries, as well as a California poppy to represent Meghan's home state, wintersweet which grows in from of their Nottingham Cottage home at Kensington Palace, and crops of wheat to represent love and charity.
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